


I Meant You, Not Yu

by EvaMarth



Category: Persona 4
Genre: Bonding, Falling In Love, Fluff, He's Trying His Best Okay, I Dunno I Don't Really Have A Time Frame, Kanji's Oblivious, Love Confessions, M/M, Misunderstandings, Multiple chapters, Not Beta Read, Pining, Self-Acceptance, Sort Of, Takes Place Just After Persona 4, We Die Like Men
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-01
Updated: 2020-10-11
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:20:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26741257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EvaMarth/pseuds/EvaMarth
Summary: After a small misunderstanding, Kanji thinks Yosuke has a crush on Yu, and tries to help get the two together.
Relationships: Hanamura Yosuke/Tatsumi Kanji
Comments: 6
Kudos: 23





	1. Hair Mishaps

**Author's Note:**

> Kek moment
> 
> TYSM to the Souyo discord server, specifically uh oh and hehe junes boi go n y o o m for the help !! I care you both(as well as the rest of the server members) very much :>
> 
> Thisd is my first multi-chapter fic ever and I may have pulled the first chapter out by a bit too much but eh I'm doing my best

The scissors right next to his chin feel ice cold as he judges where to cut his hair. He's trying to make it match up to how it looked over a year ago, almost two by now, just before he moved to Inaba. Not that the timeline of his hair is really something he keeps track of, but it was somewhere around that time.

It's not like he hasn't been keeping his hair in check, but it's grown past it's usual resting spot and his self control is at rock bottom, plus change is nice sometimes.

Yosuke breathes out shakily before steadying the scissors and-

BAM

Before Yosuke could think, the bathroom door slammed open and the scissors closed. Teddie's standing in the door way, mouth open in a wordless expression, staying like that for a few seconds before pointing at Yosuke's hair.

"Is it supposed to look like that?" Teddie asks, tilting his head to the side. Yosuke turns to the side and faces the mirror, realizing that his hair is at least an inch and a half, maybe two inches shorter than what it was before.

"Fuck!" He shouts, grabbing the shorter part and trying to hide it with the rest of his hair, to no avail. "You've got to be kidding me..." He mumbles, rubbing his temples.

Teddie stares confused for a second before saying "You could always just fix it!" Yosuke whips his head to look at Teddie. "How am I supposed to fix this!?" He grabs the part that's too short, pointing at it with his other hand before sighing, burying his face in his hands. He groans loudly, staring at his hair in the mirror. It wouldn’t look too bad short, but he’s probably gonna make it worse if he tries to fix it. He could leave it, but it’d just look… Well, it’d look stupid.

Teddie jumps up, pointing his finger out. “Kanji does his hair by himself, just ask him to fix it!” He says with a large grin. Yosuke thinks it over for a second, still staring at himself in the mirror. He does need to re-bleach his hair so he can dye it again, and there’s no way in hell he’s doing it by himself. Maybe going to Kanji might actually be a good idea.

With that, he grabs his phone, sending Kanji a single text.  
  


‘Messed up my hair p bad, also need to bleach it but don’t know how, can u help ?’  
  


It explains enough without going too into detail about the how’s or the why’s of his less than ideal situation. Kanji’s text come in a few moments later, simply reading.  
  


‘Sure. I’ll be ready in 5, come over whenever.’  
  


Yosuke sighs in relief as he turns his phone off. “You’re lucky he’s willing to help.” He glares at Teddie, who simply brushes him off and moves behind him, pushing him out of the bathroom. “I need to do my hair. It has to be silky smooth for the ladies!” He says all too cheerily before shutting the door.

“Don’t use all of the shampoo this time dammit!” Yosuke shouts only to receive no response. He sighs, putting his phone in his pocket. He should probably make his way to Kanji’s place.

\--

The trek to Tatsumi Textiles is fairly uneventful, aside from a short exchange with Yu, nothing of note happens. Kanji’s mother is sitting in the front area when he arrives.

“Hello, ma’am?” He asks, looking at the woman. “Do you need something, dear?” She asks in response. “I was gonna hang out with your son- Er, Kanji, today. He was gonna help me do my hair.” He definitely felt like his delivery was off, but that wasn’t his main focus right now.

Just before his mother could answer, Kanji walked out from the back area of the shop. “Hey! Sorry I kept ya waitin’ senpai.” He smiles, to which Yosuke smiles back before Kanji leads him to his room. “Take a look around if ya want, just gotta finish settin’ stuff up.” He says before grabbing a thin black brush, it almost resembles a comb, and using it to mix something in a bowl. Yosuke looks around the room, noticing it’s actually fairly empty.

“D’ya mind bleach gettin’ on your shirt?” Kanji asks, breaking the silence. “Uh, not really?” Yosuke’s response comes out as more of a question than an actual response. Kanji simply nods. “Siddown.” He points to a metal folding chair a foot or so away from himself. Yosuke makes his way over the chair and sits down. “You do know what you’re doing, right?” to which Kanji stopped for a moment, unsure of how to respond. “If I didn’t know what I was doin’ you wouldn’t be here.” It makes enough sense to Yosuke, so he just rolls with it.

“Your entire head, yeah?” Kanji asks, walking up behind Yosuke. “Yeah.” He responds, to which Kanji makes a humming noise. The brush feels odd against his head, not really like anything specific, just a little odd.

It’s now or never, he supposes. “Hey, uh, I’ve got a question.” to which Kanji tilts his head slightly, not that Yosuke can see. “Shoot.” He responds, to which Yosuke sighs heavily. “Well, I kinda have feelings for someone, a guy to be specific, but I don’t really know how to tell him...” He trails off, to which Kanji stops for a second. “Really?” He sounds genuinely surprised. “Who?”  
  
Yosuke inhales deeply, holding his breath for a second before exhaling. “It’s… You. I like you.”

When Kanji doesn’t respond, Yosuke gets scared. He fucked up, didn’t he? He feels Kanji’s hand pull a bit of his hair back, then the brush is against where that part of his hair had been placed. “I can see why. Yu-Senpai’s a great guy.” He responds, tilting Yosuke’s head a few times, checking to see if he missed any spots.

Kanji walks to a small table just out of Yosuke’s view, grabbing a plastic bag and carefully wrapping it around his head. “There.” He glances at his phone clock. “You can wash your hair in…” He pauses for a moment to think. “‘Bout 40 minutes.” Yosuke nods. Silence lingers heavily between the two before Kanji finally speaks “So, about your crush on Yu-senpai, d’ya plan on doin’ anything? Like, confessin’ or somethin’?” Yosuke seems puzzled before he shrugs. “Not really? I never really thought about telling anyone, let alone him so..” Part of him wants to correct himself, tell Kanji he means him, not Yu. But every other part of him yells over that tiny part, he’ll ruin everything if he tells Kanji the truth. So he rolls with it.

“I haven’t really thought about it until now, but I guess I’d want to eventually.” It’s casual, calm, sounds like something he’d normally say, he hopes at least.

The conversation dies there, the two sit in silence until the forty minutes for Yosuke’s hair is up. Kanji leads him to the bathroom, Yosuke thanks him before entering, closing the door behind him. He sighs, putting the toilet lid down before sitting on it. He’s really screwed himself over, hasn’t he? He rubs his temples. “Fuck..” He mumbles, taking the bag off of his head before turning the sink tap on. For a moment he thinks about getting in the shower, but the sink’s easier, plus it’ll make less of a mess that way.

It takes him a few minutes to get all of the bleach out, but he eventually gets it all out. He grabs a towel from the rack and dries his hair as best he can before exiting the bathroom.

“I rinsed my hair in the sink if that’s okay.” He says, setting the towel on the back of the chair. “‘T’s okay. Now I just gotta put the toner in, let it sit for five minutes then rinse again.” To which Yosuke nods. Kanji grabs a small tube, putting some of the contents on his hands. “It’s Lavender, hope ya don’t mind.” Kanji rubs his hands together a few times before beginning work on Yosuke’s hair once more. “I don’t really care, as long as it doesn’t smell like the bleach did.” And for the most part, it doesn’t. It’s got a hint of bleach, but otherwise it’s actually fairly nice.

Absentmindedly, Yosuke leans his head into Kanji’s hands as they comb through his hair. “There.” Kanji finishes, pulling his hands away. “Five minutes, right?” Yosuke’s pretty sure he remembered the right time, but checking isn’t a bad thing. “Yep.” Kanji grabs the towel and wipes his hands off.

“So, about the thing with Yu…” Yosuke trails off, fiddling with the bottom hem of his shirt. “I’m, well… Fuck, I’m nervous I guess.” to which Kanji sighs, chuckling lightly. ”Been there, the best you can do is just tell ‘im straight up.” to which Yosuke nods. He supposed Kanji’s right, better to be honest about how he feels. Too bad he’s wrong about the person Yosuke likes. Not to say Yosuke doesn’t like Yu, but the way he likes Kanji is just different.

The two make idle chat until the 5 minutes is up, Yosuke goes back to rinse his hair, towel drying it after. He looks up at himself in the mirror, smiling. From what he can see, there’s not a single spot that’s been missed.

As he exits the bathroom, he’s grabbing small parts of his hair that rest by his cheeks and staring down at them. “You did really good, dude.” He looks up, only to find Kanji staring at him, his face adorned with a light blush. He’s almost bone still before he clears his throat and looks away. “You, uh, ya look nice." It was Yosuke’s turn to go red faced as he smiled. “I wouldn’t have been able to do it without your help, all the credit for this is yours.” Kanji opens his mouth to say something but he’s ultimately speechless.

They both just stand nervously before Yosuke breaks the silence. “You’re also gonna fix,” Yosuke points at part of his hair, which is noticeably shorter than the rest, “This, yeah?” and Kanji looks over at the table. “Yeah, right. Just siddown again.”

Luckily, Yosuke’s hair is still wet enough for Kanji to cut it properly. Neither of them speak, but the quiet isn’t bad, it’s a nice, relaxed silence.

Kanji moves around to the front of Yosuke, one hand gently holding his chin in place. “It’ll look weird if I don’t do the front too, sorry.” Kanji mumbles. “No, it’s fine. Do what you need to.” Yosuke’s barely able to manage a proper response as he stares up at Kanji, who Yosuke only realizes is really close to him.

Eventually, Kanji steps back. “There, all fixed.” he smiles. Yosuke stands up, legs wobbling for a second before he steps into the bathroom. His hair’s short, really short. But he likes it. Kanji did a good job. Maybe it’s too short, that’s how own fault for try to cut it with Teddie around.

“I’m guessin’ ya like it.” Kanji chuckles, making Yosuke realize he’s been gawking at himself in the mirror for a little too long. “Yeah, yeah. It looks really good, thanks. For the haircut I mean, and the bleaching too, I uh-” He trails off, clearing his throat before continuing. “I can probably dye it when I get home.” Kanji nods.

“See ya.” Kanji says, waving to Yosuke as he leaves, Yosuke waving back with a smile.

\--

The first thing Yosuke does when he gets home is stare at himself in the mirror. He doesn’t like his hair, he really likes it. Almost loves it, actually. He contemplates keeping it blonde, but that might be too sudden of a change in such a short amount of time.

His thoughts linger on why he likes it so much. Maybe it’s just a nice change of pace? Or maybe it’s because of who did his hair. He’s unsure, and by the time he’s in bed, almost asleep, his brain decides it’s because it was Kanji who did it. And he’s fine with that conclusion.


	2. Help And Accidents

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yosuke tells Yu about his predicament, the two try and put things in a slightly different light, and things go well. As Yosuke's leaving, something goes wrong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so this took forever because I burnt out BUT I got my kick back and chapter 3 will NOT take as long as chapter 2 !
> 
> I'M SO SORRY IT TOOK THIS LONG !!

The sun’s not quite yet out when Yosuke wakes up, and he almost contemplates going back to bed, but after just laying there for 30 minutes or so, he still can’t fall back asleep, so he begrudgingly gets up.   
  
He immediately heads to the bathroom, stopping when he sees himself in the mirror. He sighs, right, he’s still blonde. He should probably dye it soon. It’s not like he’s only got that morning to do it though, it’s Saturday, so he’s got plenty of time.   
  
As he sleepily stumbles his way down stairs and into the dining room, his mother’s sitting at the table sipping her coffee. He waves to her before heading to the fridge. There’s a container of sushi that has a sticky note attached to it, his name written on it. He’s been having to do that recently because Teddie’s developed a habit of eating his food without asking.   
  
He absentmindedly eats the pieces of sushi in the container, his mother mentioning he should probably eat something other than sushi, he says he will tomorrow as he throws the newly emptied container in the trash. The conversation’s still a little foggy in his tired brain.   
  
Standing up and stretching, Yosuke begins walking to the front door. He should probably go see Yu first and explain what’s going on, he’d probably be able to help solve things.   
  
“Yosuke,” His mother speaking immediately stops his train of thought. “You’re not about to leave the house in your pajamas, are you?” Yosuke quickly looks down at himself. “Uh.. No?” He leans his head down as he sighs, his mother chuckling. “Just go change.” She says with a smile, and he treks upstairs and does just that.   
  
He puts on his usual summer outfit, his Yasogami uniform pants, a white v-neck with red trim at the ends of the sleeves and the neck. He grabs a short-sleeved button up. It only occurs to him then that the red trim showing on his arms looks a little odd. It’ll have to do, he thinks, grabbing his headphones and making his way back downstairs.   
  
“Love you, be back later!” He shouts to his mother as he slips his shoes on. “Not too late!” She shouts back. “Got it!” He quickly shuts the door behind himself, rushing to Yu’s house.   
  
He knocks a little too harshly, mostly because he’s out of breath from the bike ride there, and if he didn’t slam his hand against the door his knock wouldn’t have been heard.   
  
When the door opens, he expects to see Yu standing in front of him, not his uncle. “Uh… You’re, you’re not Yu.” He seems almost confused. Sure, he knows other people live at the house, but it was still a surprise to him. “He went to get groceries with Nanako. You need him for something?”   
  
Yosuke chuckles nervously. “Sorta? Yeah, I do actually. I  _ really  _ need to talk to him.” Dojima nods, moving to the side. “Well, you’re welcome to wait inside until they get back. It shouldn’t be that long.” Yosuke thinks for a moment before deciding to accept Dojima’s offer and head inside.   
  
  
  
\--   
  
  
  
Most of Yosuke’s time waiting is spent staring down at the Kotatsu as he attempts to make conversation with Dojima. Ultimately he fails, giving up on sentences midway.   
  
“If you don’t mind me asking, what do you need to talk to him about?” Dojima asks, looking up from the newspaper in his hands. “Well, I tried to explain something to a friend and it went wrong, so now I kinda need Yu’s advice.” Dojima idly flips the page of the newspaper. “I’m sure you’ll be able to figure it out.” Yosuke isn’t sure if he should respond, let alone how to, so he just nods.   
  
The next few minutes can’t go by fast enough, but eventually Nanako comes running through the front door, Yu walking in shortly behind her. “We’re home!” She cheerfully announces, setting the two bags she’s holding on the table.   
  
Yu follows suit, setting the bags he has down before turning to Yosuke. “I didn’t know you’d be here. If you told me I would have hurried.” Yosuke shakes his head. “Naw, it’s alright. I didn’t wait that long anyways.”   
  
“Your hair looks nice by the way.” Yu says, throwing the empty Junes bags away as he puts the groceries up. “Oh, thanks.” Yosuke smiles.   
  
“Need help with any of that?”   
  
“Actually,” Yu puts a container of orange juice in the fridge. “That’s the last one.”   
  
“Oh…” Yosuke goes quiet, leaving a heavy air in the room. He wants to say something, anything really, just to cut through the quiet. “Hey, partner… Can I ask you something?” Yu looks at Yosuke puzzled for a moment before he nods. “Of course.”   
  
Yosuke nervously messes with his shirt before looking towards the staircase. It takes a moment to click, but Yu nods. The two wordless head up to Yu’s room, Yu closing the door after they both enter. As Yu sits at his desk, Yosuke rests himself on the couch. “So, what is it you wanna talk about?”   
  
Here goes nothing.   
  
“Well…” Yosuke runs a hand through his hair nervously. “I kinda told someone I like them, and they thought when I said “I like you” that I meant Yu, like, you…” He sighs. “This is really hard to explain, but K-” He stops. There’s no way in hell he’s going to just outright say it was Kanji, not now at least. “ _ Someone _ thinks that I like you.”   
  
“That’s…” Weird? Odd? Totally a Yosuke thing to have happen? Yu doesn’t even know what he should say, until he hears Yosuke exhale through his clenched teeth. “Yeah, it’s… A lot, a total mess to be honest. I kinda need your help clearing it all up.”   
  
“Of course I’ll help, but,” Yu looks down, his face shifting slightly. “How do we fix that?” Yosuke shrugs. “No idea.”   
  
There’s a small bout of silence while the two think. “Well, we could try just telling him-” “No. Nonono absolutely not.” Yu stops, completely stunned. “Why not?” he looks up back at Yosuke. “I… I don’t wanna mess it up. What if he’s still pissed at me with all the stuff I’ve said to him in the past?”   
  
“He won’t. If he were still mad I don’t think he’d spent as much time with you as he does.” The way Yu puts it makes sense, but Yosuke’s still worried. “I mean, he’s probably still a little upset, but he’s definitely not pissed.”   
  
“Yeah, I guess so...” Yosuke trails off, breathing deep before exhaling in an almost over the top manner. “Thanks for listening to me ramble, partner..” It’s hard to notice, but the corners of Yu’s lips turn up in a smile. “You don’t need to thank me.” He’s had to tell Yosuke that a million times by now, but Yosuke still thanks him for the smallest of things.   
  
The two make idle chat for the next half hour, mostly just talking about unimportant things like how school’s going, games they’ve been playing, mostly mundane things.   
  
A heavy sense of unease lingers in the air as the conversation dies. Yosuke stares down at the floor and Yu looks anywhere but at the other boy. It’s entirely too quiet in the room, only made even more apparent when Yosuke leans back a bit, the fabric of his clothing rustling entirely too loudly.   
  
“I… Should get going.” Yosuke stands up and Yu nods. “Yeah- Yeah, see ya.” Yosuke smiles and starts heading to the door, Yu just a few steps behind him. He waves at Nanako, and despite her not even looking in his direction, she waves back, mumbling a ‘goodbye’.   
  
Just as he’s slipping his shoes on, he takes a step towards the door. “Text me more about it.” Yu says, stopping Yosuke in his tracks. “Will do, partner. Just, don’t tell anyone.” They both smile, Yosuke laughing a bit. “But seriously, don’t.” He sounds stern, but still with a joking air to him. “I promise I won’t.” Yu says, his smiling still there.   
  
Yosuke waves as he gets on his bike. “See ya later!” He shouts, slamming his hand back down on the handles as he nearly falls off. “Be careful!” Yu shouts back, waving.   
  
As Yosuke continues his bike ride home, he sighs. That probably went as well as it could have, which he’s thankful for. Even though he’s not much closer to solving the problem, he feels lighter; happier, even. Until he nearly crashes into a pole, narrowingly avoid it. He turns around to face the pole, laughs and sticks his tongue out. “I win this time!” he shouts triumphantly- only to hit something anyways- well, some _one_.   
  
After such a good morning he hoped this wasn’t going to happen, but in typical Yosuke fashion, it pretty much had to.   
  
As he sits up, reeling from the fall, there’s a hand waving in his face. “Senpai, you okay?” he looks up, and sure enough, it’s Kanji.   
  
Could nothing in his life just go right and stay right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1,519 words 8,263 characters !
> 
> Thanks for reading !
> 
> This chapter isn't as long as the last one but I tried :> !
> 
> Please be nice in the comments,, I am only one small man,, Do leave feedback if you have any though :O !

**Author's Note:**

> 2,037 words 10,999 characters
> 
> Thanks for reading !
> 
> I'm gonna try and make this at least 3 chapters or so, I don't really have a full story idea, but ! We're gonna try !!
> 
> Please be nice in the comments,, I am only one small man,, Do leave feedback if you have any though :O !


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